


The Sun, The Night, The Calm

by Shadowhunterwolf



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Cute, Eventual Smut, F/F, Fluff, Follows the main game with an AU twist, Good Akechi, M/M, Mute - Freeform, Mute Akira, Short Akira, Sign Language, but not the main focus, lol, there will be angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-29
Updated: 2018-11-22
Packaged: 2019-01-26 07:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 18,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12552180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowhunterwolf/pseuds/Shadowhunterwolf
Summary: An attack in his early years leaves Akira unable to talk.Years later he is wrongfully accused of assault and his parents take this chance to ship him off to Tokyo, Akira hopes this will be a fresh start, new school, new friends but what happens when he finds out that rumours have spread about his record?-This basically follows the main game but is also largely an AU, Goro is a good boy, Ryuji is a protective mother hen and all Yusuke wants to do is paint Akira with his lobsters.





	1. Meetings and greetings

**Author's Note:**

> I'm supposed to be updating my DA: Inquisition fic....
> 
> So here's a P5 one instead XD
> 
> Hopefully my other will be updated in the upcoming week or 2

Akira Kurusu was just like any other happy 5 year old when it happened, he was playing at the park with his parents watching him from one of the benches that surrounded the area – he waved at them happily as he eagerly clambered up the ladder into the small enclosed section that held the opening to the slide. Strangely there were no other people at the park at that time but being 5 he merely shrugged it off and pushed it out of his mind, he was watching his feet as he climbed as too make sure that he didn’t misstep and fall – unfortunately this meant that he didn’t notice the dirty looking man that was huddled in the corner of the space until it was too late.

He looked up and before he could make any sound of surprise the man grabbed him roughly, slamming his hand over Akira’s mouth and pulling him further into the space, Akira wiggled harshly trying to escape the man but he was jerked and then slammed onto the floor by his neck – the man was crushing his throat and Akira felt tears well up in his eyes, he felt something tear in his throat at the harsh treatment and more tears welled up at the pain.

Akira struggled to get air into his lungs, he grasped and pulled at the man’s hands, his short nails scratching and biting into the man’s skin – unfortunately for him the rugged, dirty man was too strong and with a measly jerk of the hand strangling him Akira stilled, darkness was starting to appear at the edge of his vision, black spots started dancing around and he felt like he was starting to float as his body started feeling lighter and lighter. Just before he fully faded he heard a blood curdling screech from the entrance to the slide, it was another child who had just barely poked his head over the top of the ladder, too far for the man to grab and now with attention brought to the situation the man had no other choice but to let him go and make a run for it. Letting go of Akira’s throat the man dashed towards the opening of the slide, this meant that Akira could gulp in large breaths of air but his throat tensed and he choked on the air, he couldn’t get any air in or out of his lungs.

Akira felt hands pulling him out of the play area, lots of screaming, shouting and bright lights, he could hazily remember seeing his parents panicked faces and then strangers in a red and white uniform – they injected him with something and Akira slowly faded into unconsciousness.

-

The doctors had told his parents that due to extensive blunt force trauma to his neck his vocal cords had torn and that because they had to insert a breathing tube for him to be able to breathe the wound was irreparable – Akira would never be able to speak another word again.

The man was almost immediately caught by the police, they found out that he was an escaped convict from a nearby jail that managed to escape due to negligence by one of the security guards, who had been paid off by a crazed fan of the man – a serial killer who had murdered over 8 children by strangling them till their necks broke. It seems like his breaking point was when his wife had cheated on him with another man, had his child and then left him, taking most of his money.

In the following months Akira and his parents went to classes to learn sign language so that he would be able to communicate with them but it seemed like the event had done something to his parents, they drifted away from him over the following years – becoming distant, they hardly ever spoke to him other than what was necessary. The man had taken away his voice, his innocence and the love of his family, all for something he had nothing to do with, because of the man’s anger at his wife’s infidelity and her child.

The injustice of the world hit him hard. The cruelty of adults knew no bounds.

-

At the end of his first year at high school Akira was walking through the silent night of the small town he lived in, on his way back from school when he heard the cries of woman and the angry shouting of man, demanding that the woman get in the car – Akira flinched in remembrance but steeled himself, there was a woman in danger and he had to help somehow. He walked up the street and rounded the corner to see a bald man trying to force a woman into his car, he was very obviously drunk due to his jerky movements and stunted speech – Akira hurriedly sped up so that he could intervene, he gripped the man’s shoulder and lightly tugged so that he could get his attention so that he could try and sign to him but as the man turned around Akira saw him very unconvincingly stumbled and fall, knocking his head open on the ground.

The man started shouting at him, threating to call the police for assault and Akira looked at the woman he tried to save, she was shaking and had obviously seen the entire act and that Akira had in no way assaulted the man but before he could try and console her the other man was up on his feet shouting at her, threatening her to tell the police that that’s what happened and she shakily nodded when the bald man thrust a couple of thousand yen at her.

That was how Akira Kurusu had been falsely convicted of assault on a random bystander, of how a woman he had been trying to save was bribed into lying and giving a false eyewitness account of the ‘assault’ and how corrupt the justice system really was when they brushed his account under the rug, claiming that due to his disability he felt the need to rebel and how the surveillance camera evidence mysteriously disappeared.

The world was truly an unforgiving and cruel place.

Due to the corruptness of a system – Akira was an unfortunate victim of circumstance.

 

20XX 4/09

Akira was startled out of his day dreams by the loud voice of a woman announcing their next stop over the train’s intercom system, after the ‘incident’ his parents had jumped on the chance to send him away – claiming that it was better for _him_ if he got away from the rumours but he knew better. They said they had made arrangements with an old friend of theirs for him to stay with, in Tokyo, far away from his small hometown – and in turn, far away from them.

The train jolted to halt by the platform he needed to get off at so that he could get on the next train that would bring him closer to the location he would be staying at – Akira had to struggle to make his way out of the train, people seemed to pay the small black-haired teen any mind and thus would not make space for him to leave the train car. He huffed out a tired sigh, being mute and short did nothing to help him in these sorts of situations but he shook his head, being negative would help him either so with a renewed pep in his step Akira made his way up a set of escalators, following the arrows printed on the handing signs on where he was supposed to go next.

He went down a set of steps into an underground section and paused to get his phone out, he looked at the directions sent to him by the man he would be staying with – Sojiro Sakura seemed like a terse, no nonsense man from what he could gather from the short and curt texts he had received from him. Akira was so focused on the contents of his phone that he hadn’t noticed a light brown haired teen standing in front of a rack of magazines and thus walked straight into him, nearly going sprawling if it weren’t for the quick reaction of the boy to grab his wrist, the other teen hardly seemed affected by the bump whereas Akira almost became close friends with the floor, another disadvantage of being small he supposed.

Once he had regained his balance he looked up at the other teen, barely reaching his shoulder Akira had to almost look straight up to see his face due to them standing so close, being distracted by how handsome the light-haired boy was Akira lifted his hands and made the quick gesture of ‘Sorry’ without thinking that the other might not know any sign. It wasn’t till the other boy responded in a slightly stiff and mechanical sign that it was no problem that he had realised what he had done and blushed softly, quickly getting out his phone – ignoring the perplexed expression on the teen’s face – he opened his text-to-speech app and typed out his response.

 **“I’m incredibly sorry for bumping into you, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going.”** The slightly mechanical, monotone voice said, the small noise coming from the speakers of his phone.

The boy seemed to pause for a moment and in the same stiff movements as before he answered – it was obvious that he did not use sign language very often – that it caused no harm, he had to spell out most of the words and it became clear to Akira that he didn’t know sign very well.

 **“Thank you understanding and you do not need to sign, I cannot speak but I can hear perfectly fine, however thank you for the consideration.”** Akira gave a small smile to the teen, most times people would just glare at him and continue whatever they were doing or ignore him completely once he started signing.

“It is no problem, I haven’t had to use sign language in quite a while and it seems that I have gotten somewhat rusty in that time. As for the little bump, it was a simple accident and no one was hurt so it’s really no problem.” The teen gave him a polite smile, his voice sent delighted shivers down Akira’s back, it was so soft and kind.

Akira once again glanced at the directions he was given and then around the large underground station, he was unable to find a sign that could point him in the direction of his next line so under the slightly curious gaze of the other boy he began typing away. **“I’m sorry to be such a bother but could you please point me in the direction of the Yongen-Jaya line? I cannot seem to find it and I would prefer not to wonder around and run the potential of stumbling into another unfortunate stranger.”**

“You really aren’t a bother nor should you think so, the platform you are looking for is down this path and to the left, you should see a card scanner and an attendant in a booth next to them. I hope you find your destination…” He trailed off and looked at him in expectancy, it took him a moment to realise that the boy wanted his name.

 **“Akira Kurusu.”** A different voice came from the speaker, a personal recording done by an old friend of his since the app said it weirdly. **“It’s lovely to meet you…”**

“Goro Akechi, pleasured to make your acquaintance Akira – I do hope we meet each other again, under different circumstances of course, now you better along now or you’ll miss the next train on your line.” Akechi responded, another polite smile on his face.

Akira’s eyes widened and he shot the other teen a happy smile and nodded – he hoped that they did get to meet again, grateful for the help he bowed and then rushed off to the area he was directed to. Only once he was seated on the next train did he allow himself to think back to the encounter and blush, Akechi was really pretty.

-

Akira wondered through the backstreets of the area he was supposed to live in but the directions he got were somewhat confusing and soon he was so turned around that he had no idea where he was, never mind where he was supposed to be – he spotted a police officer and hurriedly made his way over hoping that the man would be able to help him. He tapped the man on his shoulder to get his attention, the man turned but he did not look very happy to be bothered and Akira rushed to get his cell phone out so that he could explain to the officer what he needed but the man scowled at the sight of the device.

“Get out of here kid, I have no time to deal with brats.” The man grumbled and proceeded to shoo him off with a dismissive wave of his hand and before Akira could even begin to make any signs to explain the man had turned away and completely ignored him.

He tried to open his app but it seemed to freeze each time he opened it and he let out a frustrated huff, he stomped away and tried to find someone else that could help him but the other three people he went up to basically had the same reaction – they either completely ignored his presence or told him to get lost. Eventually he gave up on trying and with tears of frustration in his eyes he walked into the first restaurant he stumbled upon, he slumped into the stool by the counter and thumped his head on the counter top – the man behind the counter just snorted in amusement while cleaning a white coffee cup.

“Rough day kid?” A gruff voice asked, and Akira just nodded his head – not even bothering to lift his head. “Don’t mind if you feel like sharing, there’s no one else here to hear and I myself am waiting for someone to show up”

Akira slowly pulled out his cell phone and began hastily typing out the short version of his story, feeling the need to get his woes of his chest, he gave a quick rundown of his literal run in at the train station, his inability to decipher directions and how he was basically ignored by all the people he had tried to get help from – and now here he was, running late to meet up with the man who was generous enough to give him a place to sleep all because he couldn’t verbally communicate with people.

After a few moments of silence the man let out a bark of laughter and put down the cup he was cleaning and the cloth with which he was cleaning with and rested his hands on the counter top then he leaned forward as if to get a closer look at Akira and then he let out another snort of amusement, or rather a snort thay signified that he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

“So I take it you’re the ‘ _Violent assaulter’_ Akira Kurusu?” Akira whipped his head to look at the man so fast that he thought he actually heard the bones in his neck crack in protest and the man chuckled at his bewildered look. “My name is Soijiro, nice to meet you or whatever. You aren’t really…. What I was expecting to say the least.”

That was an understatement, when the kid’s parents had called him and gave him the details of what happened, Soijiro thought he’d be housing a tall, burly delinquent like teenager with tattoos and scars littering his body but instead he got a short, black haired boy who seemed like he would be pushed over by a particularly strong breeze – his large black rimmed glasses added to the look, making him seem even younger and more like the type that would be bullied for money on the playground.

Akira sent the man a somewhat relieved smile, glad to have finally found the right place, even if it was totally by accident, he typed up a reply but before he could finish the man interrupted him by placing the cloth he was cleaning with onto the counter and walking out from behind the counter.

“If you’d follow me I’ll show you to where you’ll be staying for the coming year,” Soijiro gestured for Akira to follow him but the way he went made the black-haired boy raise an eyebrow in confusion. “Just follow.” Akira shrugged and followed the older man, apparently there was a small staircase hidden on the far side of the restaurant that lead up to an attic area. “Now I suggest you clean it as soon as possible, there is a bathroom downstairs that has a small shower in it and there is a bath house across the street if you feel like relaxing. The futon is over there, rest up after you’re done cleaning since I’ll be taking you to your new school tomorrow so that you can speak to the principle about the rules and any special circumstances due to your… condition. The box your parents sent over with all your things in it is over there and anything you find up here that you want, bring it to me and I’ll say whether or not you can have it – now I’m going to lock up and go home.”

With that Soijiro made his way back downstairs without even waiting for a response from Akira, who just stared blankly at the – his – room until the sound of a door closing roused him – it was a little overwhelming but he had dealt with worse so he mentally shook himself and then rolled up his sleeves and began to clean.

-

Akira was startled awake by the loud voice of Soijiro shouting at him from downstairs to wake up and get ready so he blearily tumbled out of bed and put on his glasses so that he could actually see the world around him, he dressed in comfortable but neat clothes and a pair of high top boots so that he seemed a little taller than he actually was, more his own sake than to look better. He made his way down stairs and was greeted by a cup of milk tea, which he gladly accepted and drank down greedily and nodded in thanks for.

“As part of being your legal guardian for the year I was privy to your medical records and saw that you had bad reactions to caffeine in higher amounts so rather than make you a cup of coffee I went for something that would relax you for the meeting today. Now I’ll be driving you there today but this is a onetime deal, from tomorrow onwards you’ll have to take the train but it’s simple enough – you have your passenger card so everything should be fine.” Soijiro nodded, as if he was mentally checking off things on a list. “Now you know that it’s very lucky that you got into this with your record so you need to be on your best behaviour, although I highly doubt you could cause too much problems,” at this Akira could see the older man eye from head to toe and mentally pouted. “But you’ll need to be extra careful in any case and if anyone causes you any issues due to your… inability to speak then you come straight to me and I’ll sort something out alright?”

Akira nodded in understanding, there had been a lot of problems in his previous school with bullies who thought it was funny to pick a fight with someone who couldn’t shout for help, so he knew exactly what Soijiro was talking about but Akira knew how to avoid those types of people so he doubted the older man would need to intervene. Once he was done with his tea – which was a divine lavender and vanilla blend – they made their way out the door and into Soijiro’s car.

The trip to the school was spent with nothing but the babble of people on the radio to fill the silence, Soijiro would grumble every once in a while because of something another driver did or didn’t do but the silence was companionable enough that it wasn’t too awkward. They arrived at the large building of the school soon enough and were lead upstairs by a student council member with short brown hair once they walked inside, there were three people waiting for them in a semi-spacious office.

There was a larger, bald man seated behind a desk who Akira assumed was the principle due to the placard on the desk that said ‘Principle’ – standing to his left was a curly haired woman who looked incredibly unimpressed, she was of average height and wore a muted yellow that wasn’t hard on the eyes, needless to say she was taller than Akira was. The other person in the room was a boy who looked to be Akira’s age in a light coloured jersey top and dark pants, he had dark blue hair and had such a terrified demeanour that Akira was impressed he hadn’t bolted out the room as soon as the door opened. Although he seemed confused when Akira and Soijiro walked in, almost as if they weren’t who he was expecting, and he shyly glanced towards Akira but quickly averted his gaze – Akira just tilted his head to the side in confusion with a somewhat unsure smile on his face.

Before he could look around any further the principle got their attention by clearing his throat, once everyone in the room had their attention turned towards him he started to talk, “Akira Kurusu, since your grades at your previous high school were adequate you shall be in Kawakami-san’s class of 2-B, you shall listen to her and not cause any trouble – you should be grateful to have been accepted into this school due to your record so if you cause any trouble what so ever you will immediately be expelled without hesitation.” The man got straight to the point, his voice stern and left no room for arguments. “Now in regards to your disability,” at this Akira flinched, “this is Mishima Yuuki, he shall be your basic translator for when your need to give answers in class since cell phones are not permitted to use during class hours however under special circumstances you shall be allowed to use it.”

The other teenager gave him a nervous smile and a small bow which Akira returned with a much brighter smile, it was obvious that they boy was scared of him – a small frown wiggled into the forefront of his mind, but why was he scared of him? No one at the school should know of his record but maybe Mishima had been informed due to his presence as his translator, he waved the worry from his mind – it was highly unlikely that the other students knew of his past other than being the new transfer student.

After a few more warnings and his schedule, Soijiro lead Akira out of the building and back to his car where they got in and left the school grounds, the older man turned on the radio in order to hear if there were any traffic accidents that he should avoid on the way home but all that was on was coverage about the train crash that had happened the other day and the supposed mental shutdown that caused it.

“Tch, what is happening to the world these days?” Soijiro mumbled under his breath and turned the radio off. “Now listen here, this was a onetime deal – from tomorrow onwards you’ll have to take the train to school, you have your card and everything so you should be fine just follow the signs and they will take you to the right place, Don’t be late and don’t cause any trouble at school or else you’ll be expelled and trust me when I say that it was hard enough getting you into this one.”

Akira just nodded, he felt bad for putting Soijiro through so much trouble even though he technically didn’t deserve this either but Akira felt bad for burdening others with his mess anyway. He sighed and closed his eyes, hoping for a good start to his school year tomorrow.

-

Of course he would be caught in the rain without an umbrella, first his train was late due to the crash, then he had gotten lost in the station and finally he was now stuck – sopping wet - under an overhang due to a sudden downpour of rain that the weatherman had not menti9oned in the news this morning. Just his luck.

Akira was interrupted in his pity party by someone else running under the overhang to get out of the rain, they were wearing a bright red hoodie with the hood pulled up of their head to protect them from the rain, they shook of the excess water clinging to them and pulled the hood off their head. A plume of light blond hair was released and Akira had to hold his breath at the beauty of the light bouncing of the rain onto the hair, the owner of the hair was a pretty, young woman who smiled in amusement at his awestruck face and he blushed. Before he could reach for his phone to apologize for staring a red car pulled up and the window rolled down to reveal a man, Akira stared in bemusement as he smiled up at the girl and offered her a ride. Akira looked at her and saw the strained smile she had on her face as she accepted and climbed in, the offer was extended to him but at the harsh look in the man’s eyes, he declined and hung back watching the girl as the car drove of – she looked so sad and defeated…

Akira was startled out of his observations but a blonde teenager running up from out of nowhere trying to reach the car, at first Akira thought that he was trying to get a lift but reconsidered when he heard the blonde curse under his breath as he caught he breath, leaning on his knees. The boy was dressed in a bright yellow tee, the same school pants that he was currently wearing and jacket – his short, sunny blonde hair drew his attention, he’d met more blonds today than he had the entirety of last year in his small hometown.

The blondes head snapped towards him when he shifted from one leg to the other and basically glared at him, “What?” The blonde snapped at him.

Rushing to get his phone before he could anger the other further, Akira hurriedly typed out a short ‘nothing, sorry’ before shyly glancing down. A confused frown took place on the boys scowling features and he gruffly mumbled something along the lines of ‘I’m not going to bite you jeez.’

The boy was significantly taller than he was but at the same time it seemed like he was hunched over, as if trying to make himself seem less noticeable – Akira felt bad for seeming like the other was going to harm him and quickly typed out another sorry before introducing himself, the other seemed shocked at first that he continued to interact with him but then shot him a crooked smile.

“Sakamoto Ryuji, it’s nice to meet you.”


	2. We laugh in the face of danger (ok not really cause this shit's weird)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akira and Ryuji find themselves in your everyday fairytale setting, except they're both bros, the villan is a twisted perv wearing nothing but a robe and speedos and they end up saving a cat.
> 
> Just your normal day, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo... here's chapter 2, a whole week earlier than I thought I'd have it out so yay!
> 
> Brief mention of sexual assault 
> 
> Please feel gree to point out any mistakes I may have made!
> 
> Thank you all for your help and lovely comments last chapter! And thank you to everyone who left kudo's!
> 
> Enjoy~
> 
> *and sorry about earlier, there was a problem with the posting but it should be fixed now!*

“ **It’s lovely to meet you Sakamoto-san.** ” Akira cringed at the butchered way his phone said the surname and shot the other boy a shy smile which he returned much brighter.

“’s Nice to meet ya too but just Ryuji is fine dude, sayin’ it like that just makes me wanna cringe,” Akira huffed in amusement but nodded anyway, pointing at himself and nodding – he hoped the other teen would get the idea to do the same for him. “Akira right? You alright man? Do ya got some sorta” At this Ryuji waved his hand about and flustered, “ _thing_. Argh that sounds kinda mean, what I mean is-”

Akira cut him off with a snort before the teen gave himself an aneurysm. “ **I’m mute, although I can hear I cannot talk or make any noises requiring my vocal cords.”** The raven looked at his feet and scuffed the toe of his shoe on the pavement, people normally tried to distance themselves at this point – reminding themselves of how much effort sustaining a friendship with someone like him would be.

“Ah shit dude that seriously sucks, I’m sorry.” Akira’s head whipped up so fast that his glasses almost flew off his face, Ryuji merely stared at him with his eyebrow raised in bemusement and his hands stuffed into his pockets. “What?”

Akira blushed in embarrassment and Ryuji mentally screamed at how adorable it was (wait what?), the shorter teen fiddled with his phone and hesitantly typed out a response. **“It’s nothing… just that others tend to try and distance themselves after learning that – not many tend to express sorrow on my behalf.”**

The blonde scowled at that, “Well those guys are idiots then, you seem like a pretty chill dude.” He shrugged and smirked at the raven haired teen. “Besides most people tend to avoid me by sight so that gives ya some bonus points in my book.”

Akira frowned and looked the from head to toe, sure he was a little rough around the edges but he exuded a very friendly and cheerful aura, surely others didn’t judge that harshly based on looks? Then he shook his head and reminded himself of all his past experiences with people – especially other teenagers, being smaller than most, mute and shy had made him the target of many bullies at his previous schools – one of the reasons he was not so torn up about having to attend a new school.

“You goin’ to Shujin? Never seen ya before but there have been some whispers about a transfer goin’ around.” At the shorter boy’s nod Ryuji grinned, “I’d be happy to show ya a shortcut to the school, we might wanna get goin’ else we gonna be super late. That shitty perv Kamoshida will probably be waitin’ for us at the gate to try and catch us – he acts like the school is his castle or some shit, you better stay away from him cause he likes picking on those he deems weaker than him – which is basically everyone.” The blond shrugged, hunching his shoulders in more.

Akira could hear a tone of resentment and… _Pain_ laced in his words and he wondered what had happened to the other for him to sound so resigned and sad, it didn’t fit the blond at all. Before he could do anything to try and cheer him up the other motioned with is head to follow and then turned and started walking away, Akira had to awkwardly jog in order to keep up with the taller boy and his longer legs. Ryuji led him through several twisting alleyways that Akira soon stopped trying to remember the way, it had only taken them about 10 minutes before Ryuji came to a sudden halt causing Akira – who hadn’t been paying an ounce of attention – to crash softly into his back.

Ryuji snorted a laugh and faced him, “Dude your face is a bright as a tomato right now, it wasn’t that embarrassing.” The shorter just shook his head, he didn’t want the other teen to realise that he was blushing because he had felt how finely muscled he was. “The school’s jus’ around this corner…” The pained look had returned but just as quickly vanished and Ryuji flashed him a smile, “You might wanna go in without me, I’m not exactly someone you wanna be associated with.”

Akira frowned up at him and crossed his arms, his posture completely getting his disapproval across and Ryuji laughed, scratching the back of his head in embarrassment although Akira could catch how he seemed to unwind and relax at his clear unwillingness to leave him. The blond turned and made his way around the corner to the school with Akira close behind but he had to catch himself before he once again crashed into the others back – what was it with people and him crashing into them lately? He was about to get his phone and ask Ryuji why he stopped again but then he caught sight of what was in front of them and froze.

What on earth was a gigantic castle doing in Tokyo?




At first it had taken them a couple of minutes to pull themselves out of their shock, a few more for Ryuji to mumble to himself in confusion – Akira had heard murmur phrases like “What the eff?” “I couldn’t get us that lost.” And “What the eff is a castle doing here anyway? Never seen it before either…” – before he finally took hold of Akira’s hand (which caused so much blood to rush to his face that he felt dizzy for a split second) and marched them off back the way they came.

Now 20 minutes later, several different routes that Ryuji assured him were all ways to the school and the ever present sight of the castle were they both certain that something was wrong, Having followed signs that assured them that they were indeed heading in the direction of Shujin Academy yet the weird sight of the ominous castle proving it wrong each time seemed to throw them both for a loop.

“Argh eff it! I’m gonna go in and see what the deal with this freaky place is – you can stay or follow but if you do stick close to me yeah? We dunno what could be going on in there.” Akira nodded and shyly gripped the taller boy’s sleeve, who made no motion to remove it or that he minded in anyway and then led them into the entrance hall of the building.

“Hello!?” Akira startled at the loud shout of the other at which the blond grinned apologetically at.

Akira motioned for him to keep quiet, they didn’t know what was going on or who could be in here or if they were dangerous or not and he had the feeling that they would not want to find out. They wondered a little further into the entrance and just before they reached the centre they were stopped by the sounds of heavy footsteps, Akira winced when Ryuji’s hand gripped his wrist tightly when the people came into view and when his eyes focused enough he saw why. The figures were rather large (but to be honest everyone was compared to him), they were dressed head to toe in armour and were armed with very _real_ looking blades.

Ryuji stepped somewhat in front of him and eyed the ‘people’ in suspicion, “who are you? Where are we? Is this some sort of prank?” The blond questioned, trying to stay away from the approaching figures.

“Trespassers must be captured and punished.” More armoured… creatures appeared and Ryuji turned and pulled his arm, urging Akira to run but before they could get very far one of the faster soldiers caught up and hit him with the broad side of the shield he was carrying.

Ryuji collapsed to the ground with a pained grunt and when the guard hit him again he went silent, Akira sucked in a breath in shock but then released it when he saw that the other boy was still breathing - and that was the last thing that he saw before he felt a sharp pain in his side and the world swirled away into inky blackness.

-

Akira awoke to the feeling of someone gently shaking his shoulder, when he opened his eyes the world around him was blurred beyond recognition and all he could see was a blob of blond just too far that he couldn’t make out any defining features but he instantly knew it was Ryuji from the bright yellow of his tee, Akira squinted trying to somewhat focus his eyes to no avail – he motioned towards his eyes hoping that Ryuji would understand what he wanted. It seemed he did because the next moment he was handing his glasses to him and Akira slid them on to his face only to see that they were currently locked in a cell, the raven shook his head at the twinge of a faint sense of Déjà vu but it disappeared as quick as it appeared and he was distracted by the other teen soon after.

“Dude you alright? They hit ya pretty bad.” Ryuji rubbed the back of head, ruffling his short hair and making it stick out a little more wildly – Akira would have laughed if not for the situation they were in.

Akira pat himself down trying to search for his phone but looked at the blond when he hummed, “if you lookin’ for ya phone I wouldn’t bother, it seems like wherever we are is interfering with ‘em somehow, mine ain’t turning on at all an’ I know for a fact that it was fully charged when we got here.” Akira frowned and tried turning his screen on anyway but true to his words, it didn’t even flicker – other than a strange red eye-like symbol flashing on screen for a moment but it was too quick to investigate further.

Akira huffed in agitation, without access to his phone it made things significantly harder, communicating would be near impossible unless Ryuji knew sign but it was unlikely – the shorter teen motioned towards his throat and frowned hoping to get his worries across, he saw the realisation cross the others face and he just shot him a small smile.

“We’ll work something out, for now we can just pretend we’re playing charades yeah?” akira shot the boy a grateful smile, happy that he tried to make him feel a little bit better rather than get frustrated. “For now let’s just look around to see if there’s another way outta here before those guards come back.”

Akira nodded and shakily stood up, his side throbbing in pain but he easily ignored that – he was rather used to bruises and the pain they were associated with. The both made their way around the room, Akira looked at the beds that they had been situated on, even bothering to look underneath them but coming up with nothing, he then made his way to a set of barrels placed on the side of the room – he glanced inside them only to immediately shut the lid when he saw various… implements inside. He made his way to the opposite side of the room where Ryuji was examining chains attached to the wall, they glanced at each other in wary suspicion and Ryuji poked one with reckless abandon.

“These things are used for… like torture and stuff right?” Akira could hear the worry in his voice and just placed a comforting hand on his wrist, lightly tugging him away from the chains to the door placed in the middle of the bars.

They both turned their attention to the sound of more heavy, approaching footsteps and moved away from the bars when several guards stopped in front of the cell. They were all once again armoured and armed, some with swords and others with shields but they all looked identical.

“Feel honoured prisoners, your sentence has been decided. You are to be executed for your crimes against the king.” The monotone, definitely inhuman voice came from one of the guards in the front and they both gaped – _Executed?_

 _“_ What the eff for!? And who is this _king_ you keep blabbin’ about?” Ryuji shouted, kicking angrily at the door causing it to bang and rattle loudly.

“Oh ho, I certainly didn’t expect for you to be the trespasser I was informed of, Sakamoto.” A heavily distorted voice stated, coming from somewhere behind the guards hidden from view – the voice cause then both to scrunch their faces, it was oddly familiar.

They were both shocked when a figure came into view when the guards moved aside to let them pass, it was a taller man with curly black hair dressed in a gaudy, plush red cape with white fur trimming, they seemed to either being wearing short shorts or rather no pants at all because they could see his bare legs from mid-thigh down. There was a tacky, golden crown that sat tilted on black hair and actually looked rather small compared to the man’s head – the man had a rather nasty looking smirk plastered on his face and Akira shivered at the look of it.

 _“Kamoshida?”_ Akira heard Ryuji gasp out, “What the eff is a perv like you doing here, what are ya wearin’?” As soon as he said that the smirk was replaced by a hateful grimace, the man’s face twisting into something even more terrifying.

“First you trespass them you dare insult me? My, my Sakamoto it seems you didn’t learn your lesson from the time.” The blond flinched at this and Akira frowned, what was he talking about – it didn’t seem like Ryuji had ever been here before? “Seems like I’m going to have to take even more drastic measures this time in order to make my point clear, take it like man.”

At this Kamoshida pushed open the gate which had just been unlocked moments before by one of the several guards that surrounded the cell, coming in the cell, two guards immediately grabbed Ryuji by his upper arms and held him up, barely touching the floor while another guard grasped the shorter boy from behind and shifted his wrist into one large hand, keeping them aloft above his head. Akira chocked on his breath when Kamoshida punched the blond harshly on the face, the sound it made rattled in his head and he was sure that it would haunt him in his nightmares for the next few weeks – along with the next few hits to the other teens face and stomach. The raven struggled and huffed trying to twist out of the inhuman grasp he was trapped him, unable to bear looking at the barbaric act taking place in front of him – he was finally able to free himself after a minute or two after the beating started when he swung his leg back and kicked the guards knee, causing it to collapse and its grip to weaken.

Akira felt his heart shatter when he looked at the beaten and bruised face of the blond who was now laying crippled in pain on the floor, the utterly broken look in the taller teens eyes made his breath stutter and his heart clench. The raven tried to push his way forward but abruptly stopped by the teen’s loud shout of for him to just leave him and run but he stubbornly shook him head and tried to push his way forward again.

“Aw look at this touching moment, I didn’t know you had such loyal friends Sakamoto – I thought they had all abandoned you after the incident.” Kamoshida cruelly laughed as his kicked the blonde’s stomach causing him to collapse completely.

“He’s not a friend, “Akira’s chest twinged in pain at this statement although he knew it had no reason to hurt, it wasn’t false since the two of them had just met today. “Run you idiot! Forget about me and run!” The stepped back in shock at being shouted at like that by the previously soft spoken blond, the sudden change caused his head to spin.

“Running now are we? Not very loyal it seems… However you do look so very _sweet_ if I do say so myself. Maybe I shouldn’t execute _you_ but rather keep you as my newest toy.” Akira shuddered in disgust, this man was truly a horrible pervert – he started to hyperventilate when he felt the other man’s hand grip him harshly on the side, the pervert’s hand digging painfully into the bruise that was forming.

“Oi! Get your filthy hands off him!” Ryuji struggled to his feet, blood dripped of his chin from his lip that had split from the brutal beating he had just received but he was halted when the same two previous guards seized his arms.

“I’ll have some fun with you first then I’ll deal with that peasant over there,” The crowned monster laughed at the small teen when he struggled even harder, trying to kick the man’s crotch but failing.

His breath was knocked out of him when the man shoved him against the hard brick wall, his vision shuddering when his head bounced off the surface – this subdued him for a bit but he renewed his struggles when he felt Kamoshida’s hand reach for the bottom of his shirt. He kicked his leg out and gave a small cry of victory in his head when his foot connected with the man’s hip, knocking him back a few steps – he snarled and hit him in the face clipping the bottom of his glasses causing them to fly off and bounce of the floor, Akira felt his face start to swell almost immediately at the strength of the hit. In the background of his ringing ears he could hear Ryuji’s desperate shouts and snarling insults at the caped man, he then heard the sound of the blond being thrown onto the floor by the guards – when he heard the sound of a whimpered cry of pain from the boy something seemed to snap inside of him.

“ _Are you just going to idly stand by and let your voice go unheard?”_ Akira heard a deep voice whisper, it seemed to come from everywhere all at once, but no one else seemed to hear it. _“Was your previous choice a mistake?”_ Quick images flashed past his mind’s eye of the incident from last year that had sent him, the woman being hit, the drunken man abusing his power. He felt his rage build and the voice gave a deep, rumbling laugh. “ _It seems you have made your choice – show them your justice!”_ The voice shouted and suddenly a powerful gust of wind nearly blew their captures off the feet, Akira felt Kamoshida’s hands leave him to protect his face from the cutting wind.

He heard a voice say something that sounded like some sort of contract or deal then he felt a surge of power run through him, there was a feeling of something settling on his face and he lifted his hands to feel around his face – he expected to feel smooth skin but rather his fingers bumped into a rigid and leathery textured… mask? He got the urge to pull it off, the strange disembodied voice urged him on, whispering encouraging words to him – he tightly gripped one corner of the mask and pulled on it hard, he grunted in surprised pain, the mask felt like it was attached to his skin and as he pulled it off he felt like he was tearing half of his face off but he didn’t stop, it actually felt like it was freeing him despite the intense pain. Akira felt wet trails of blood make their way down his face but he just smirked, confidence filled him and he felt smug at the shocked look on Kamoshida’s face – he felt the tight but unrestricting feeling of worn leather settle on his skin, he looked down and saw a black jacket appear like magic over his form, blood red gloves encased his hands and a vest and jacket appeared to complete the look.

He felt empowered by his change in appearance and confidently stood in front of his ‘enemy’, he also felt the now comforting feeling of the mask settle on his face, it somehow helped him see even though he could identify the frame of his glasses lying on the floor. He flung his arms out and he felt a surge of power collect and form behind him, he saw the unfurling of blood red wings from his peripherals and smirked – this is what freedom felt like.

“ _My name is Arsene – thou hath revealed thine true self, show thy enemy your justice!”_ Akira willed Arsene to bat his wings, creating another powerful gust of wind, buffering against a shocked Kamoshida and his guards causing them to shield their faces from any potential harm with their hands and arms – while they were sufficiently distracted, Akira ran and gently grabbed Ryuji, pulling him to his feet and helping around the guards, out of the cell and down the hall before any of the others could do anything about it.

They hid behind some barrels close to the entrance of a wooden bridge that led over a small rushing stream, staying hidden in the shadows as some of the armoured guards rushed past – they heard Kamoshida screaming in the distance to find them no matter what. They waited there for what felt like several minutes before they could no longer see any of the guards in the vicinity, Akira helped Ryuji stand and winced when the boy groaned in pain.

“Dude! What the eff was that all about, what was that thing and why do you look like ya belong in some kinky mag?” Akira raised his eyebrow at that last statement and the blond didn’t even looked fazed – Akira thought back and silently laughed to himself – the taller teen really asked a lot of questions.

Akira just shrugged, he didn’t fully know himself what happened, the weird voice had whispered something about _Persona_ but it wasn’t exactly like he could tell that to Ryuji at the moment – so he just shook his head and tried to motion something that could be interpreted as _later_ and that they should probably get going. Ryuji begrudgingly nodded and started walking but not before he came closer to Akira and gently thumbed his cheek where he had been hit by Kamoshida.

“’m sorry that he hit you, I was tryna keep his attention of ya so that you didn’t get hurt too, I thought that maybe if I didn’t associate you with me that he would lose interest in ya.” Ryuji sighed and walked away, leaving the smaller boy to stand there in stunned silence at the gentleness while a bright blush spread over his face and even travelled down his neck. “Well come on yeah, we don’t wanna have a run in with any of those guards again.”

-

The two of them had been walking for what felt like an hour, crossing bridges, hiding from the guards and jumping across gaps when they could.t find a bridge to cross – they had now however come across something truly strange and disturbing, at first it was just empty hanging cages but the further they got the cages actually had people in them, students from Shujin Ryuji had said. They slowed their walk, taking in the horrible sight of what was occurring – teenagers littered in cages, some of them were boys in a sports uniform or girls in… distressing states sometimes there were even a few boys in these states – however all of them had very obvious signs of abuse, ranging from scrapes to large purple and blue bruises.

“Disgusting – Kamoshida better hopes that this aint actually real or else he’s gonna have hell to pay.” Ryuji spat out, venom laced his words – Akira had to agree but first they had to find their way out of this strange place.

The both stopped at the 3rd dead end they had run into, Ryuji growling in annoyance and agitatedly running his hands through his hair but he winced when the movement agitated his wounds. Ryuji was just about to open his mouth to probably rant about them being lost but he was interrupted by a very loud, conspicuous _psst_ to garner their attention.

They both turned towards the noise and both gaped when they came face to face with probably the strangest thing they had seen during this entire ordeal – standing in front of them, locked behind the bars of a cell that was similar but smaller than the one they had been trapped in before was… a cat?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So yeah, I made Kamoshida an even more twisted perv - *shrug*
> 
> I hope you enjoyed!
> 
> Till next time~


	3. Mother Ryuji and The sick bastard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the help of Morgana, Akira gets more gay, Ryuji is slowly becoming a top grade mother hen and Kamoshida is even ore of a sick bastard than before.
> 
> Ok so Morgana had no part in any of that but it happened...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no excuse as too why this is so late XD I'm sorry 
> 
> Be warned - there are more references to sexual abuse so be wary.
> 
> I want to ask you guys - would you prefer shorter but more frequent chapters or longer but slowly updated chapters?
> 
> If you have any suggestions for the story or about the characters please do let me know!

Akira and Ryuji were stunned into silence, well at least Ryuji was, Akira had no choice but that’s beside the point – what was locked behind the bars seemed to be some kind of… Cat creature thing. Akira gripped onto tighter Ryuji’s sleeve and shuffled them backwards to try and get away from the unknown cat thing – a look of… hurt? crossed it’s face and he faltered in his retreat. He felt the other teen gently tug on his hand but he just petted the hand and walked forward to face the cat, he heard Ryuji let out a grunt of panic but Akira just waved him off.

“You gotta get me outta here! I heard that the king dude was after you, I can show you guys a quick way out!” The cat said. Akira tilted his head, thinking, he looked at Ryuji and also saw the confliction on his face – should they risk trusting the cat for the chance to escape. “Please you gotta trust me!” Akira looked into the cats eyes and checked for any sign of dishonesty but he could only see the blatant honesty reflected back.

He glanced at the blonde boy and nodded, “You sure man?” Ryuji asked, his hand hesitating over the lock, Akira nodded and the lock popped open with a heavy sounding clunk and the cat creature rushed out and glanced around before turning back to them and grinning. Before he could say anything Ryuji pushed in, “Now where’s the exit, you monster cat?”

“Don’t call me a cat! My name is Morgana!”

“…Do you want to be locked back in the cell?” Ryuji grunted and crossed his arms over his chest, seemingly standing taller and Akira felt a shiver run down his spine at the assertive nature the other teen was displaying – he felt his face heat and he turned his head away and pretended to fiddle with his glasses to avoid the stare of the cat.

“Sheesh alright, follow me and keep quiet!”

 

-

 

They followed Morgana around the castle for what seemed like hours, avoiding what the cat described as shadows or, fighting them, Morgana gave him several tips and advice on how to fight them. He actually had a Persona to but they discovered something strange – Akira could actually acquire the shadows as masks and then use them later as Personas. So far he had Arsene, Jack ‘o Lantern and Slime.

They had fought shadows to get ‘keys’ to lower a drawbridge and they also passed more students in cages, Ryuji paused and glanced at Akira – a somewhat desperate look on his face. The black haired teen paused too which in turn made Morgana stop, his body shaking with impatience. “Come on, we have to go before they find us!”

“We can’t just leave them here! Who knows what Kamoshida is doing to them!” Ryuji practically shouted, his angry voice echoed slightly down the hallways and Akira winced, if the guards didn’t know where they were, they either did now or their luck was running very thin.

Morgana opened his mouth to angrily shout back but Akira interrupted but putting his hand on the cats soft head. He walked over to Ryuji and looked up to him, gently grabbing his hand and pulling him away, Ryuji glanced back but Akira just shook his head sadly – he had a weird feeling about the people in the cages and he felt like they weren’t actually what they seemed to be.

Ryuji let it go and hurried along to follow them up another set of stairs, they were all huffing now from the hurried pace they had kept and the two teens let out a sigh of relief when they saw that they had returned to the entrance hall where they had first come in. They were about to run outside but Morgana pushed them into a random side room, when they heard heavy footsteps echoing around the hall, the door clicked closed and they all held their breath to listen if they had been discovered, but they didn’t hear anything coming closer. They all let out the breath they were holding and collapsed on the ground, Akira was partially leaning on Ryuji who didn’t seem to mind – the smaller teen could see him massaging his leg but let it go for now, it wasn’t like he could ask at the moment anyway.

“Now what, cat?” Ryuji grumbled.

Morgana glanced back at them and seemed to raise his eyebrow. “We find a different way, duh – we just need to think outside of the box.” The small creature went back to looking around the room.

Akira saw something out of the corner of his eye and when he got up and looked closer he realized that is was a vent grate. The shorter teen went back to where Ryuji was sitting and tapped on his shoulder. When the blonde glanced up at him, he tugged on the material that covered his shoulder to indicate that he wanted the taller to follow him. The blonde nodded and slowly got up, Akira saw him wince but filed it away for later for when they weren’t in danger – if Ryuji ever wanted to see him again that is. He led the blonde to the vent and pointed up at it, hoping to convey his idea – at first Ryuji just stared at it blankly before staring at him blankly, as if to say ‘WTF?’

“Oh!” The sudden shout startled him so badly that he stumbled back a little, his face must’ve looked funny because Ryuji bent over laughing as he mumbled an apology – Akira felt a flush of heat rise on his face. “But I get what ya want to say dude – you think we could even fit through there?” Akira shrugged, if anything he and Morgana would probably have to pull Ryuji through the vent but if it meant getting out of this hell hole then he would do anything.

Ryuji pulled himself up onto the cupboard that was underneath the vent, stuck his finger through the grate and pulled, almost flying off the cupboard when it gave away easily. Akira muffled a snort and went to try and get up on the cupboard. While he was able to get his fingers curled over the lip he couldn’t manage to pull himself up nor was he able to push himself up because the shelf was too high for his foot to reach – luckily he had Ryuji to pull him up or else they would have been stuck. Akira smiled at him and then helped Morgana up as well. The cat went first through the vent and Akira followed – he could easily crawl through it on his hands and knees and for once he was actually grateful for his lack of height.

“Ah eff dude, I can’t get through!” Akira glanced back and saw that Ryuji’s shoulders were too broad to squeeze through the opening unless he went through diagonally but that in turn would make it extremely difficult to actually move through it.

Akira held his hand out, motioning the he would pull the bigger teen out and Ryuji complied, his larger – incredibly warm hand – covered the smaller teens hand almost entirely and Akira had to fight down a blush at the feeling. He started pulling the other teen through and if he could he would’ve grunted from the effort – he really needed to work out more, he practically had noodle arms but the vent was short at least and it only took him 5 or so minutes to fully pull the teen through. The blond nodded his thanks and opened his mouth to ask what they were supposed to do next but was interrupted when a furry paw covered his mouth and low ‘shh’ was uttered – that was when they both noticed the large shadow standing in the room below them.

“We have to turn back, there’s no way we can get down from here and sneak up on it without being noticed and the alarm being raised.” Morgana whispered, already making his way back to the vent but Akira was tired, tired of sneaking around, tired of being unable to communicate with the literal sunshine incarnate teen and tired of generally not having any fucking idea of what was going – not to mention, nearly being a sex toy for a perverted teacher that apparently liked to keep teenagers in cages.

He shook off Ryuji’s hand – who shot him a wary look – and crawled closer to the edge of the bookcase they were perched on and before the blonde could even wonder at what he was up to, the brunet leapt down from his position and straight onto the shadow’s back, ripping its mask off and taking it completely by surprise.

After the battle he was harshly reprimanded by Ryuji for being so utterly reckless and just when he felt like he was going to start tearing up, Ryuji shocked him but hitting him on the back, “But that aside, good job dude! You totally saved our asses.” He laughed and his face practically lit up when he smiled and Akira was at a loss for words by the sheer force of his pounding heart.

They were both snapped out of the moment by Morgana who insisted he knew where they were and that they were incredibly close to a hidden exit. They eagerly followed the cat, sneaking past one or two shadows that were patrolling the hallways and eventually they found themselves in front of a door that seemed to be fading in and out of reality – seemingly switching with a… classroom door?

“This room is what you could call a weak spot in this Kamoshida person’s cognition, meaning that the distortion between this cognitive world and your reality is strong – you could call this a safe room, shadows cannot enter here so it’s a good place to rest up if you need.” Morgana hastily explained as he ushered the two teens into the room. “But for now we’re going to use it to escape, there’s a window here that leads to the outside of the castle close to the entranceway.”

They followed his advice and soon they were standing outside, sighing in relief but it was short lived – Morgana hadn’t followed them out and was now staring at them from the window. “Aren’t ya gonna come with us?” Ryuji shouted at him and winced when Akira elbowed him in the ribs, he shot the brunette an apologetic look.

“There are still somethings I have to do!” Morgana whispered back, ducking back into the room they had just escaped from – not even giving them a goodbye.

“Just don’t effin’ get caught again, dumb cat.” Akira heard the taller teen grumble. They both glanced at each other in horror when they heard the entrance door squeak in protest as it was hastily being opened. “Run, dude!” The blonde all but shouted at him, grabbing his wrist and pulling him along, not giving the shorter teen much of a choice in the matter.

What they didn’t hear whatever was Morgana talking to himself, mentioning how useful they both seemed – well Akira more than Ryuji but that was beside the point. He hoped that he would meet them again and that he could convince them to help out with what he needed to do, if they ever came back that is.

 

-

 

The two teens ran straight out the school gate and collapsed, huffing hard and trying the regulate their breathing – Akira collapsed onto the ground as he greedily sucked in oxygen, he really needed to work out more if this is how he was after a little bit of running. He glanced over at Ryuji who seemed to be managing better than he was, only slightly winded but he was wincing and rubbing at his knee.

“Are we out?” The blonde asked, glancing around and after seeing no immediate danger he helped the smaller teen to his feet.

Before Akira could try and respond somehow a slightly mechanical, female voice came from his phone informing them that they had returned to the ‘real’ world. They both glanced at each other in confusion and Akira saw Ryuji mouth the word real but before they could try and talk about the fucked up situation they had just escaped from, two police officers jogged up to them – they seemed either concerned or bemused, the bright sunlight was hard to get used to after the dark world they were in before.

“Aren’t you boys supposed to be in school?” The shorter of the officers asked, contempt lacing his voice, not concerned then.

“Aren’t you from Shujin?” The other officer eyed their clothes in suspicion.

Akira felt that he needed to diffuse the situation as fast as possible before the officers got fully involved and got him into trouble with the school and his guardian – he definitely felt that this situation would not help his case at all; he was already treading on thin ice. So he pulled out his cell phone and prayed to whatever god that was listening that it would turn on – he could see Ryuji out of the corner of his eye and even though he hadn’t known the teen long, Akira felt that if the awkward silence went on any longer then the blonde would probably blurt out something that would definitely make them seem way more suspicious than they already did.

Thankfully his phone did turn on and soon he was typing away at his speech app, hoping that what he came up with would convince the officers to leave them alone. “ **Sorry officers! My friend here was just helping me, I have anemia and I felt a little faint and had to sit down. He saw me and came over to help out. We were just on our way to the drug store so that I could get my medicine and something to eat!** ” The monotone voice had never made him feel as happy as it did in this moment, he held his breath while watching to see if the officers would buy it.

After a minute or two of tense silence, Akira could see a glaze of uncaringness slide over the officers faces, as if they couldn’t care less to actually be bothered to confirm his story – the taller officer shooed them off with a half-assed comment on how they shouldn’t get into anything illegal and a barely there warning that if the officers saw them again they wouldn’t be let off as easily. The brunette pulled a stunned looking Ryuji away in a rushed walk before the older men could change their minds, once they were far enough away, Akira let go of the blonde’s hand and leaned against a wall while running his hands through his wild hair and letting out a stressed sigh.

“Dude.” The shorter teen glanced up at the other boy, “That was AWESOME! You just… just – you were so cool! I was jus’ standin’ there like a dumbass, just thinkin’ about how much shit I was gonna get in if I rocked up at the school with the effen’ police but you just stood there all calm like – then you just whipped out your phone and boom! They let us go!” Ryuji waved his hands around in childish excitement, all Akira could do was smile at how… sunny the teen was, there was no other way he could describe the other boy.

“ **Come on, we better go to school before they phone my guardian**.” Akira typed, taking hold of Ryuji’s sleeve to pull him along while he spoke excitedly about this and that – making Akira laugh on several occasions.

Since they actually weren’t that far from the school, it was only about a 3 minute walk before they reached the alleyway they were in before this entire mess started, Ryuji paused once again and Akira managed to not crash into him. The brunette could see that the blond was about to make some self-deprecating remark about how he shouldn’t go in with him or some shit he’d spouted before but Akira cut that thought off before the other could even finish thinking about it by grabbing then teens sleeve – he didn’t want any rumours to spread if they were seen ‘holding’ hands.

This time it seemed the school was… well a school, as it should have been the first time and it looked like lunch was just beginning as there were students roaming all around the school grounds which made it easier for them to sneak in. That didn’t last long however because as soon as the other students saw Ryuji, or his new face, they stopped and started whispering to whomever they were with, or just flat out stared – Akira’s initial enthusiastic walk faltered and he started to slow down, slightly curling in on himself to try and escape the stares. Why were they all staring?

“This is why I said you shouldn’t walk in with me dude…” Ryuji mumbled behind him. Akira glanced back at the boy and saw that he had resumed him usual slouch and had his hands buried deep in his pockets.

Akira was about to respond but he saw that the students were actually staring disdainfully or… fearfully at him – it couldn’t be. Akira felt the blood drain from his face. Ryuji must’ve sensed that something was wrong because he grabbed the shorter teens shoulder and spun him around so that they faced each other, whatever he saw couldn’t have looked good because he quickly pushed the shorter teen towards… the student counsel room? When did they get to the third floor, and why was everything spinning?

He felt Ryuji push him down in a chair and through blurry eyes he made out the other sunny blonde hair in front of him, he seemed to be talking to someone to the left of him because Akira couldn’t make out the others soft, brown eyes. Eventually he registered that the teen had actually started talking to him at some point and somehow managed to focus on his face, for some reason he couldn’t breathe properly and his lungs were burning.

“Dude! Akira! You gotta focus on my voice man! You’re fine, listen to me you are fine! Take deep breaths, you gotta match mine ok? Come on,” he distantly felt his hand being pressed to something, there was a rhythmic thumping and it was raising and sinking at a slow steady pace. “Feel here, match this ok? Breath in – and breath out.” Following Ryuji’s soft voice, Akira managed to calm down to an acceptable level.

Akira mouthed out the word ‘sorry’ and hung his head in shame. If he hadn’t scared the teen away before he certainly had now – he braced himself for the blonde to get up and tell him in a kind but polite way that he did think they could be friends or something – but that moment never came. Instead Ryuji snorted and Akira could feel the rumble it caused in the taller teen’s chest, since his hand was still tightly pressed against it. Akira felt his face flush red so fast the he was worried he would pass out any second now from all the blood rushing to his face. He heard Ryuji start panicking, asking if he should take him to the nurse but all Akira could do was dazedly shake his head as he focused on the warm chest beneath his hand. He felt the heat radiating off the other teen and could distinctly feel his heartbeat. Strangely, it made him go even redder – the situation felt way to intimate for someone he had just met today.

Akira heard quiet giggling coming from the direction he saw Ryuji talking to before and when he looked over he saw one of the female students had seen the entire encounter – well let’s just say that his glasses actually fogged up from the heat radiating off his face. He quickly pulled his hand away, trying to make the movement seem casual but he knew from the look that the other student gave him that she didn’t buy it at all – Ryuji was still going on about the nurse and Akira placed a hand on the blonde’s shoulder to get him to stop and when he finally did and looked at the brunette’s face, Akira gave him a small, grateful smile and mouthed that he was ok.

Ryuji didn’t looked convinced but before he could say anything, the female student cleared her throat and brought their attention to her – now that he had all of his attention focused on her, Akira took in her features. She had brunette hair cut to just above her shoulders and there was a plait crowning her head, it was actually kind of cut even though the girl herself looked quite serious, her uniform was meticulously ironed with not a single wrinkle in sight – while his uniform had fold creases in it and He didn’t even want to think about Ryuji’s at the moment. The girl had dark chocolate coloured eyes that glinted with intelligence and a keen awareness, Akira lowered his gaze and saw that she was holding some sort of clipboard.

“Sakamoto-san I’m sure Kurusu-san would appreciate some space to breathe, so while he gets his bearing I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me where you two have been all morning?” She smiled in retrained politeness.

“Uhm… a ca… a castle?” Ryuji stuttered out and Akira fought the urge to face palm while the blond let out a choked laugh.

All Makoto did was raise her eyebrow in disbelief and Akira was both laughing at how adorably stupid the blond was and cursing at him. Akira got out his cell phone and explained to the other teen about how they had gotten lost and ended up in some alternative shop that remind them of a gothic castle and that’s what the blond meant – not some literal castle. It didn’t seem like she really believe a word he said but before she could question the further, the door to the room slid open and akira felt like all the air in his lungs had been punched out – it was Kamoshida.

“Nijima-san, the _requests_ your presence immediately.” The girl – Nijima? – nodded and made her way out, passing by Kamoshida without a second glance to either of the two teens or Kamoshida. Once she was out of sight, the older man turned his attention to the two boys.

Akira shivered in disgust as he felt the man’s eyes racking up and down his body, mentally undressing him or at least that’s what the weird gleam in the older man’s eyes said and the fact that he was biting his lip – Ryuji stood in front of him and blocked Kamoshida’s view, Akira could see the scowl that overtook the man’s face and he curled into himself, the man looked deadly.

“Ah Sakamoto-kun!” The cheer in his voice was obviously fake that the brunet cringed, “one would think that after what happened last time you stood in my way you would stop doing it – yet here we are!” Kamoshida flung his arms outwards.

“Shut up!” Akira could see Ryuji’s hands shaking, either from rage or from how hard he was clenching his hands – it was probably both if he was being honest. There was obviously some history between Ryuji and Kamoshida and none of it was good, Akira could only hope that a fight didn’t break out since both of them were significantly larger than he was and there was no way he’d be able to pass.

“Sakamoto why don’t you just leave the two of us alone and maybe you won’t get another broken leg, hm?” What the fuck was he going on about?

“Like eff I will! You’re an effen perv Kamoshida and the day I willingly leave you with someone is the day I’m unable to fight back!” Akira gripped the blond’s sleeve, trying to pull him back from the inevitable confrontation – he could the cold, calculating look that took over the man’s face, he actually seemed to be contemplating if he would go that far.

He seemingly made up his mind as a frigid smirk formed and he stalked closer to the two teens, he looked like he was puffing himself up so that he appeared larger, more threatening – he grabbed Ryuji by his jacket collar and shoved him to the floor, Kamoshida pressed his foot down on the blonds chest to make sure that he wouldn’t get back up then focused his attention on the smaller teen. He roughly grabbed Akira’s wrist and pulled him closer, the brunet winced at the strength that he used – it would certainly leave a nasty bruise, he heard Ryuji snarl from the floor when he was roughly yanked up and he struggled to release himself from the large hands that retrained him.

Kamoshida grinned widely and he caressed the side of Akira’s face, gently at first but then he suddenly gripped his hair, unable to shout all Akira was able to let out was a pained gasp – this caused Kamoshida to grin wider. “So you really can’t make any noise, such a perfect pet.” Akira heard him whisper to himself, the brunet mentally whimpered in pain and distress.

Fortunately before the man could continue they heard the door start sliding open, in a split second Kamoshida had released Akira and pushed him down into the chair and was then leaning over Ryuji on the floor – Akira, in a daze, looked over to the person who walked into the room, hoping that they had caught even a glimpse of what had just happened. Unfortunately they had been looking down at their cell phone screen, after blinking his daze away Akira recognised the person as Kawakami – his homeroom teacher.


	4. No one really knows whats happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ryuji has no idea that he would be a great friend, Akira thinks that Ryuji is too great to be his friend - they work shit out and after a long heart to heart Akira gets a number and a new friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this is so late! this year did not start off well lol
> 
> I got pneumonia and a full-scale sinus infection for a month, had to go back to college cause they lost my exam papers and I now have to rewrite my exams or continue with an ungraded and then i just got a huge writers block  
> Thank you to everyone who left comments! they were all so lovely and kind and honestly helped me get over my block, I'll be replying to them soon hopefully!  
> So here it is! Chapter 4! enjoy!!!

 

Kawakami walked into the room with her head bowed down as she typed something on her phone, missing how Kamoshida threw Akira down next to Ryuji and lifted his foot off the blonde while he quickly backed off from the pair – when the other teacher finally looked up from her phone the only thing that greeted her was two teens sitting on the floor and a concerned looking teacher.

“And what happened in here?” Kawakami drawled, her eyebrow raised and she crossed her arms uncaringly over her chest.

“Oh Kawakami-san, Sakamoto-kun fell and seemed to drag the new kid down with him – I was just about to help them up,” Kamoshida laughed but Akira could see how he narrowed his eyes at them and the corners of his mouth tightened, as if he was warning them to even try and say anything different.

Kawakami just hummed – seemingly satisfied with the older man’s answer, “Kurusu-san, if you could please follow me to your class – I passed Nijima-san on the way here and she told me what happened, I’ll let you off for today but please get proper directions for tomorrow alright?”

The short brunet shakily nodded and quickly got up, helping the blond as well and dragging him out of the room, who knew what would happen if he left the two of them alone in a room together  he could hear Ryuji start to complain but Akira shot him a look that told him to keep his mouth shut.

They were led down a set of stairs and Kawakami stopped in front of class 2-B, frowning when she noticed Ryuji – Akira kept his face straight but he was mentally asking himself what on earth was wrong with all the teachers in the school and why they all seemed to have a problem with Ryuji, him he understood if they were to believe his (false) record but from he’d seen so far from the other boy there was nothing to indicate why they would treat him as they did.

“I suggest you get to your class Sakamoto, and if your teacher has any problems with your late arrival just refer him to me.” She said it so coldly that Akira actually shuddered – he watched as Ryuji walked off to his class, back slouched and his demeanour immediately became closed off.

The blonde teen glanced back and Akira mouthed ‘after school’ and pointed upwards to the roof – hoping the other understood what he meant, it might have been his own hope but he thought he saw the taller boy perk up a little – he straightened up a bit and walked to his class with a little more enthusiasm.

“Come along then, you’ve missed most of your first day no reason for you to miss anymore.” The raven-haired teen focused his attention on the taller female teacher who was still staring at the other teen with a disappointed look but he could see a small hint of… pity?

However when Kawakami had her attention on him her face was just a blank slate of faked disinterest, he could tell it was faked since he saw what real disinterest looked like as he saw it on his parents faces every time he was around – he could still see the intense focus and attention that was hidden in her expression and while this did not excuse her for her earlier behaviour it did give him a small inkling of hope that this year wouldn’t be so bad.

-

His day had gone somewhat smoothly after that, his last few classes were spent with minimal interaction with anyone, wherever he went whispers followed, he hadn’t been able to make out anything so far but the mixture of confused, worried and scared looks tipped him off that they knew _something_ – what, he didn’t know but it couldn’t be good. So after class he made his way to the roof, keeping his head down and avoiding any contact with the other students – it was easy considering his height and minimal presence since he could just slip through the crowds and stick to the shadows, while making his way up the stairs he heard a phrase so softly whispered that he almost brushed it off but the word ‘assault’ made him pause.

A pair of girls were huddled together and whispering at the top of the staircase he was making his way up, he paused at the mid-floor junction just out of their sight and focused his hearing on their voices and what he heard made his blood freeze in his veins.

_They knew._

They knew about his record, they knew about his supposed assault, they even knew about his childhood attack – they knew things about him that he hadn’t even told the school about, they knew things that the school had _promised_ not to release. He felt his breath quickening and his throat tighten, he had to get out of here – maybe it was his imagination or actual reality but he could feel everyone’s eyes on him, the stares that he had been trying to ignore the whole day now made sense. The scared glances made sense, the worried looks and the avoidance from his classmates fell into place and Mishima’s absolutely terrified expression flittered back into his mind, had he known even before he arrived, had they all?

He hid his face in his collar and rushed up the stairs going past the girls but they didn’t even spare him a look, they were just talking about how they should avoid the scary transfer student who assaulted a man but they didn’t even spare him a glance let alone try to avoid him. He shook his head, he had somewhere to be so he shouldn’t waste him time on useless people he probably wouldn’t even bother with in the first place – he reached the roof door and pushed it open… or tried to at least, it was either too heavy or it was locked.

Akira sighed heavily, he felt like crying, this day was going nothing like he imagined it would – he was hoping for a fresh start, a school where no one knew who he was, what he had gone through but that was all ruined know, someone had obviously gotten a hold of his files or one of the teachers had let something slip. He grit his teeth to hold back the tears and gave the door one last shove out of frustration, he expected nothing out of it so he was surprised when the door suddenly opened – he hadn’t expected it so it was too late to correct his position to prevent him from falling over. He closed his eyes to brace himself for the impact of his face hitting the ground but when his face hit a warm, solid but forgiving surface a lot sooner than expected he froze, the raven haired teen felt large hands grip his shoulders and gently push him back.

“You alright dude?” A loud but gentle voice asked him, he could hear the slight snicker that the other teen was trying to hide. Akira looked up and came face to face with Ryuji, the blond teen was grinning widely and he could see his shoulders shaking with repressed laughs, “you seem to like my body, ya always seem to be bumping into it.”

The blond snorted like he found it to be a ridiculous thought but Akira’s face warmed, he knew for a fact that his face would be a bright red and hot to the touch, the blond was very well built and Akira had no idea why the boy didn’t seem to realise it. He frowned to himself and filed the thought away for later, looking back up at the other teen he shot him a small smile and back off, the large hands left his shoulders and he shivered at the cool afternoon air sliding over the spot the blonds warm hands had been.

“So what’s up dude? Surely you’ve gotten the ‘stay away’ speech from the teachers, that I’m a _bad_ influence or that I’ll only drag you down – so why did you still come?” His voice went from jovial to angry and frustrated, lined with suspicion – sure he had been told by Kawakami to stay away from the blond but it sounded as if there was more to it than he knew.

He held up his hand to ask the taller teen to give him a second, he pulled out his cell phone and started typing, “ **you don’t seem bad at all to me, I was hoping that we could be friends?** ” the monotone voice of the computerised voice somewhat ruined the sincerity and hope that he wanted to convey.

Akira had looked down while typing, too shy to see the disinterest or rejection on the blond’s face – after not hearing a response for a moment or two he glanced up at the other, preparing himself to see the pitying look and the rejection that would soon follow but what he saw was a complete look of shock on Ryuji’s face. Akira tilted his head in confusion.

“Ya wanna be friends with _me_?” He asked incredulously, he frowned – why wouldn’t he want to be? The raven asked such and he gave a short, self-deprecating laugh. “Look at me man, why would anyone want to friends with a cripple punk.”

“ **Cripple**?” he asked, was this about his limp?

“Hah, I used to be on this school’s track team, one of the star athletes – until our coach got sick and that dick, Kamoshida, started coaching us – at first he seemed like a good – hell, even a great coach but then he started setting up harder an’ harder training sessions, boys would start showing up with bruises and stupid excuses on how they got them. I got offered a track scholarship and I don’t effen’ know why but the perv got real upset by this. Rumours started spreading ‘bout my dad and I knew it was him – I tried confronting him but… he broke my leg – claimed that I attacked him and he was only defending himself - but that bullshit man! He pushed me down and stomped on it the moment I accused him.” Akira stood there in shocked silence, he knew it was bad but to be assaulted by a teacher, to have your life ruined because of someone else’s jealousy – this was far worse than he could have imagined. “You believe me right?”

The way that the blonde looked up at him, with his normally warm and open eyes closed off and guarded, his shoulders hunched in towards himself even more than usual – he had obviously told this to someone before and had been shut down, no one believed him and he in turn closed himself off to the possibility that someone might.

“ **Of course I believe you, I was there in his ‘palace’ with you and its incredibly obvious that he is not a good man – I’m so sorry that you had to go through that, it must’ve been horrible** ” He finished off with what he hoped was a reassuring smile to the taller teen – he saw the blond’s shoulders sag, as if a large weight had been lifted off them and he could finally breathe.

“Well yeah, but I feel bad for my Ma ya know? She got a lot of shit for what happened, she already works a double shift to be able to keep our apartment and to put food down for us – now she has to deal with shit from the school an’ the other parents...” Ryuji ran his hand over the back of his head, Akira could see the worry that he had for his mother and decided that no matter what happened he would always be there for the blond teen.

-

After a few minutes of mindless talk about anything and everything they could think of the conversation turned back to the ‘palace’ they had been at and what it meant.

“You know, even if we both experienced the same thing, it doesn’t mean much though,” The blond sat forward in the chair he was sitting in. “but even so you still saved me from Kamoshida…” Akira frowned at the name, it brought shivers down his spine.

“ **You returned the favour tenfold if you ask me.”** He replied to the taller teen, turning his face away in embarrassment but not fast enough to miss the light dusting of red on his face.

“Whatever…” He rubbed the back of his blond head and awkwardly coughed to try and hide his embarrassment but then a large frown formed on his face. “Kamoshida needs to go down though, nobody will dare threaten him however ‘cause he’s some Olympic medallist or somethin’ – but there’s a whole buncha rumours going around about him. I’m sure you can guess some of them, the disgusting perv…” Ryuji growled and punched the table next to his leg, “That bastard has ruined so many people’s lives and the adults all ignore it in hope of getting’ on his ‘good side’ or some shit that adults do.”

Akira thought back to all the times that people were nice to him to try and gain his parent’s approval but the minute they were alone with him he was tossed aside like second hand garbage, no one wanted someone who was ‘broken’ and those who did were just disgusting people like Kamoshida who just wanted a toy that couldn’t fight back.

“The way Kamoshida was king of that castle felt crazy real cause of that… I wonder if there’s any way we can go back. I just feel like… we need to do somethin’ ya know? As if we were meant to be there on purpose.” Ryuji slouched again and groaned in frustration. “Argh, forget it – it mustve all been some crazy rain induced dream… it has to be.” He trailed off and stared deeply into the sky, as if it had all the answers to his questions.

The raven was about to ask if he was alright but a deep sigh interrupted him, the creak of the old wooden chair alerted him to the fact that Ryuji had stood up and Akira looked up so that he could look the other in his eyes, once again noticing the large difference in their height.

“Thanks for meeting me up here dude, sorry for draggin’ you out here like this – that’s all I wanted to say. I hope there’s not too many bad rumours spreading about you for meeting with me.” The blond moved as if he was about to leave but the fairer boy felt that if he let him leave now that he would never see the other boy again aside from passing glances.

“ **Not like the rumours about me could get any worse.”** He stated to the other, hiding his face in his collar and turning away – suddenly worried about what the other would think, if he hadn’t heard the rumours already he would soon and Akira would prefer that he heard them from his own mouth so that he could properly explain the situation.

“What rumours? I haven’t heard anything about you – the only rumours that’s been going around lately is about some transfer….kid…” Akira could see it suddenly click in his head, and he gave the taller teen a wary grin. “No way dude, those rumours talked about some rough and tough delinquent who smokes and has tats and killed like 6 people! I can’t see you doing any of that…” The raven blushed as the blonds eyes raked up and down his body.

**“Well they’re right about my criminal record, it just seems that the rumours got a little out of hand…”** he paused, waiting to see if Ryuji would explode at him or rush to leave to get away from him now that there was a chance that he could ‘get violent’ but the teen just stood there with his eyebrow raised as if asking him to continue – so he did, Akira told him about everything that happened. How he was just trying to help someone out but was just brushed aside due to his disability, how the police were bribed by the man to falsely convict him – how even the woman he tried to help was paid off to give a false statement how he had ‘assaulted’ the man out of the blue, the court case that the man didn’t even show up to and how his parents shipped him off to Tokyo as soon as they could to save face in their town.

Ryuji kept quiet the entire time he was talking but the raven could see the rage that was starting to boil underneath his calm mask and he felt relief start to bubble up in his chest – did his new friend really believe him? When he was finished he sat down, his emotions in turmoil after remembering the rough tide of emotions he felt during that time – he started when he felt Ryuji’s large hand land on top of his shoulder but his eyes started to water when the other teen shot him a small smile.

“Seems like we have a lot more in common than I thought, guess you’ll never get rid of me now huh?” Ryuji gave a soft laugh, and Akira had to hold back the sea well of tears that wanted to form and gave a small, grateful nod in return.

The taller teen then held out a hand to help him to his feet, he then pat him on the back and let go, the raven internally blushed when he immediately missed its warmth but kept that to himself and lowered his hand.

“I think we should both head home and get some rest, I don’t know about you but I feel like I could sleep for seven years plus I think we need to think over what happened today, give me your phone,” He held out his hand and the shorter teen handed him his phone – not even worried as to why the other wanted it. “I put my number in and sent myself a message so that I would have your number – I’ll message you later so that we can talk about what we went through today, don’t forget to respond alright?” Akira just nodded in shock and weakly waved at the blond when he slouched over to the roof door and waved at him, to much in shock that the handsome blond gave him his number so easily – AND HE WANTED TO TALK AGAIN.

The short teen broke out in a full face blush when he realised that he was now tender friends with an extremely attractive blond boy who willing wanted to see him again, let alone talk to him. He jumped from foot to foot in silent glee and was mentally screaming to himself for a few before he calmed himself down and looked at his phone at the new contact on his phone.

He quickly renamed it from Sakamoto Ryuji to a more personal name and then rushed out the door and through the school so that he could make it to the train station in time for the next train so that he wouldn’t make Sakura-san anymore upset with him.

Just as he was leaving the train for his stop he received a message, thinking it was his guardian asking where he was he opened it quickly to say that he was almost back at LeBlanc but paused when he saw the name that popped up on his screen.

‘The Sun’.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nyello, so I hope you enjoyed the chapter and that it wasn't just all over the place and a just a ball of jumbled mess, I'm still a little sick and honestly reading my own work makes me hate it and then just delete everything so i tend to avoid that, if you see any mistakes let me know!
> 
> So I'm not fully happy with this chapter and i might come back and change it if i think it needs too cause its really more of a filler and not much happens except for advancement in the ryujixakira relationship whatever XD
> 
> Let me know what you think and thank you again to all of you who left comments! it means a lot!


	5. A fresh bowl of nothing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Literally just filler wtf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhhhhh heeeeyy guys... So i'm finally back XD i just finished my final exams and now that I'm finally on holiday I can actually go somewhere to write new chapters because unfortunately my laptop was destroyed in an unforseen water incident and i wasnt able to recover any of the chapters I had finished for the this story. So now I'm currently working on a family members computer, so hopefully more frequent chapters but they will probably be as short as this one - at least until i can save up for my own laptop!
> 
> So I hope you enjoy this lovely filler chapter before more shit goes down in Kamoshida's castle in the next one!

Akira arrived back at Le Blanc with a few minutes to spare before his imposed curfew, he could understand the reason for it if his criminal record was to be believed but that didn't make it any less aggregating to have to follow - but he wanted to prove himself to be trustworthy to his caretaker and thus the rules had to be followed. Not wanting to deal with the difficult process of communicating with people he waved a quick greeting at Sakura-san, who was helping and elderly couple, and quickly made his way upstairs before he could be stopped.

 

There was still an hour or two before the official closing time of the café and he thus decided that his time would best be spent studying – no point letting his perfect grades fall due to poor circumstances, having no friends before was at least a win in regards to his marks.

 

-

Akira was startled out of his books by Sakura-san’s hand on his shoulder, the man gave him a weird look but didn’t remark on his reaction, rather the older man told him that he was closing up for the night and heading home. Akira nodded his understanding and stretched, he supposed he should stop for the night, no need in studying too far ahead just yet – he went down to the kitchen and made himself a small dinner with some odds and ends he could find in the fridge, not wanting to use anything that Sakura-san could possible need to use tomorrow, and then made his way back upstairs.

 

He looked around at his ‘bedroom’ and winced at how messy it still was – even after all his cleaning the other day, he just sighed and got ready to clean, putting on his lounge wear and a dust mask he first started by wiping down every available surface with a damp cloth and the amount of dust that it collected actually made him feel sick. Next he packed away some of the books he wasn’t able to pack away the last time, though he did keep a few that looked like a good read for whenever he had any free time.

 

Lastly he watered the sad looking plant next to the bare bookshelf, setting a mental reminder to see if he could find anything else he could give the plant to try and perk it up a little more – hopefully it would give the bare room a little more life in due time. He looked over at the empty shelf; he would have to shopping for something to put on there - one day, when he had some money.

 

After changing out of his dirty clothes and into a new set he flopped down onto his bed, carefully putting his glasses on the small windowsill and covering his eyes with his arm – he lay like that few a few minutes before he nearly jumped out of his skin when his phone dinged loudly. He was confused for a moment as to who would be messaging him, his parents had made it very clear that they would no longer be talking to him for as long as he stayed in Tokyo and he had no friends back in his small home town but then he remembered the bright boy he had met that day and his heart fluttered with hope that it would be him.

 

For once luck was on his side, he blushed at the cheesy nickname he had set the blonds name too but decided to keep it, and it was rather fitting in his mind. Akira huffed as he rolled onto his back, his muscles aching now that they were finished with the strain of cleaning, and grabbed his phone from where he had left it to charge – its little notification light was blinking and the screen lit with the preview message highlighted.

 

‘ _Yo dude, sorry for bothering you this late but I wanted to know if you could meet me back on the roof during lunch tomorrow? I wanna talk more about that freaky ass castle we saw today’_ the text was surprising legible, not really what Akira had first expected when he traded numbers with the blond.

 

The black haired teen replied with his affirmation and was about to put his phone back down and settle in to sleep but his phone dinged with another message – again from Ryuji. Akira raised his eyebrow at that and opened up his messenger app once again.

 

_‘I’m sorry about those idiots at school who keep talking about you like some heartless criminal man, I heard some of the shit they were saying on the train ride home and all of it is so stupid like I think I even heard one of them say that you killed a man by biting his throat out ??? like man I don’t think these people even live in the same reality as us’_ Akira scoffed at the example the taller boy had given – it indeed lined up with some of the rumours he had heard floating around his class today.

 

_‘It’s not as bad as the one where I’m apparently the leader of a biker gang and blackmail kids into selling drugs for me and if they don’t obey my every command I chain them to the back of my bike and drag them through the streets to set an example’_ He vividly remembered the look of the girls face when the teacher had called on him in class and _he_ had stood up – barely pushing 5’3” and looking like a strong breeze could push him three streets down.

 

This is how he and Ryuji spent the next two hours texting, comparing ridiculous rumours they had either heard about themselves or others, which then branched off into talking about which manga they found to be the most absurd which lead to both of them sending a bunch of screenshots of different laughable manga panels.

 

-

 

Akira woke with a start due to his alarm blearing in his ear, he groggily sat up and glanced over his pillow looking for his phone that was still blearing his alarm tone and he eventually found it under the spot where his head had been. He picked it up and turned off the alarm, noticing that had several unread messages from Ryuji – so he put on his glasses and unlocked his phone. Several of the messages were more pics of manga panels that made him snort in amusement; two were of Ryuji asking him if he was still there and the last one was Ryuji wishing him goodnight and that he would see the black haired boy at school.

 

Akira shot the boy a quick ‘Good morning’ text with a funny pic of a dog, he then got out of bed, stretched and started getting dressed into his school uniform. Finally he grabbed his book bag, cell phone and made sure he had all his stationary then made his way downstairs where the heavenly smell of freshly made curry greeted him. He smiled at his caretaker as he sat down in his seat in front of the plate piled high in food – Sakura-san looked as he did every day but today he was wearing a different apron.

 

“You better hurry and eat if you don’t want to get stuck in the station; you know being late will not be tolerated.” The older man glanced at him; Akira could see the harsh look in the man’s eyes softened the slightest bit and he gave a deep sigh – shaking his head. “Make sure you eat all the food on your plate, you look like you’re about to be blown away any second now – growing boys need all the food they can get.”

 

The teen smiled widely and nodded his head, digging into his food with enthusiasm – the man just sighed again, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose in apparent exasperation but Akira was saved from being lectured by the ringing of the bell above the door.

 

“I’m sorry sir but the store is closed right now, come back in 30 minutes and you’ll be served,” Sakura-San said without even looking at the customer.

 

“Oh no, I’m sorry but I’m not here for any coffee – at least not today,” Akira shot up and the voice, the soft spoken yet polite tone striking a very familiar cord – he looked over at the door and saw none other than the fair haired teen who had helped him at the train station when he first arrived.

 

The older man obviously saw Akira’s recognition and gave another sigh, “I’m sorry if he’s caused you any trouble – I’ll definitely have a word with him about bothering other people, he’s not exactly from around here.” Akira blushed at this, hiding his face in his hands – missing the absolutely perplexed look on the older teens face.

 

“No he hasn’t bother me at all, in fact I’m probably the one doing all the bothering at the moment – however I noticed you,” he was now talking to the raven haired teen, “through the door and I had to come ask if you got to where ever you were going alright the other day? I’ve been wondering ever since we parted if I should have perhaps walked you to wherever you were headed, Tokyo can be a very confusing place for newcomers, I would be speaking from experience of course.” He gave a small laugh and Akira saw Sakura-san eyeing him out the side of his eye.

 

“Ah alright then and who might you be anyway young man? Shouldn’t you be on your way to school at this time?” Akira felt oddly touched by this; it felt strangely parental – although he was probably only imagining it.

 

“My name is Akechi Goro, and I was just on my way back from a crime scene to the train station now actually but then I saw Kurusu-san as I passed by and I just had to satisfy my curiosity.” Akechi bowed politely as he introduced himself but Akira was stuck on the fact that the other teen had said _crime scene_ , why on earth would he be at one of those?

 

“Ah well then, uhm, I guess just come on in – although he should be done pretty soon so that he can also be on his way to school – so don't distract him.” The older man waved at the empty seat next to his charge and headed back into the kitchen where hê was stirring a large pot of what Akira guessed was the day’s curry.

 

Too lazy to actually get his phone out and type everything while also trying to stuff his face with food – Akira quickly signed, asking the older boy why he was at a crime scene throwing in his best incredulous expression. Akechi just laughed and waved the other boy off.

 

“I’m actually assisting the police with several cases, I’m studying to become a detective you see, and due to the fact i solved a case or two that the police were struggling with a while back, they’ve now been letting me assist now and then with some things that they are having difficulty with.” The brunet looked bashful at Akira’s awe, he was pretty sure he looked stupid with his spoon hanging out his mouth and probably some rice stuck to his face.

 

-

 

Akira had hurriedly finished his breakfast and made his way out of LeBlanc with Akechi following close behind him – he waved goodbye at Sakura-san and remembered to flip the sign on the door to open, all the while Akechi was telling him of some of the tamer cases he had been on – such as the one where a man called into the police station every day at exactly 3PM just to tell the officers that someone was trying to break into his home, however it was just his nurse coming in to check on him.

 

The older teen kept regaling stories to him until it was time for them to board the train – where they were going in opposite directions, so Akira waved goodbye to the other boy but not before signing to him that he could drop by the coffee shop whenever he wanted and got an affirmative nod in return.

 

The raven haired teen was unlucky on his trip today as all the seats had been taken so he was instead squeezed between what seemed to be a harassed mother that was trying to keep her 3 children in line and a businessman talking on his phone who seemed to think that by making aggressive hand movement that the person on the other end of the call would agree with him sooner.

 

Akira finally wrestled his way onto the platform after almost being hit by the flailing hand for the nth time, straightening out his uniform to its previous pristine condition meant that he wasn’t fully focused on where he was going, causing his to almost stumble into someone who had come off one of the other train cars – he really had to stop doing that.

 

“We really need to stop bumping into each other like this,” the other person said, the somewhat deep voice being very familiar to Akira.

 

Akira resisted the urge to slap his hand to his face, why was the universe so cruel as to make him always look like an uncoordinated klutz in front of people he found attractive, instead he looked up at the taller teen and waved hello to the blond.

 

“Hey man, what’s up!” Ryuji smiled at him, the warm feeling in Akira’s chest squeezed at the sight and the raven had to beat down his blush.

 

He just gave an enthusiastic nod in return and pointed towards the entrance of the station, to which Ryuji grabbed his arm and started pulling him towards, all the while flapping his other arm about as he talked about why the older manga were better than the newer ones even though they had way to many fillers. Akira just listened and nodded where appropriate until they were outside the school where Ryuji had yet to let go of his arm even though he had stopped dragging Akira along like a sack of flour as soon as they left the station.

 

Not that the smaller teen minded at all, in fact he was so focused on the warmth of the large hand on his lower arm that he missed the absolutely furious look that Kamoshida sent them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! so here we get some more interaction between our short boi Akira and his sunny crush as well as an appearance from soft boi Akechi!
> 
> Next chapter:
> 
> "You get your hands off of him you disgusting piece of shit!" The blond shouted, fighting the hold that the guards had on his arms, one eye closed due to the blood running down his face from the fresh gash on his forehead.


End file.
